EUGENE – Bryan Bennett could have clutched up Saturday night in Autzen Stadium.

Oregon’s redshirt freshman quarterback could have seen starter Darron Thomas go down with a third-quarter knee injury, and heard the massive intake of breath from the record crowd 60,055. He could have watched Arizona State drive for the go-ahead touchdown, gulped hard, and been swallowed by the moment.

Except he didn’t.

“He was very calm,” center Hroniss Grasu said. “He called the plays with authority. He communicated well. He was loud.”

Surprising as it sounds, the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Bennett swears he wasn’t nervous.

Thomas Boyd/The OregonianOregon quarterback Bryan Bennett breaks into the open against Arizona State.

“It was time to go,” he said, describing in a Tuesday evening interview what he was feeling. “Here is my shot. I have to take it. I just went out there, tried to stay calm and execute what the coaches asked me to execute.”

A 13-yard completion to receiver Justin Hoffman kept the first touchdown drive moving. He sparked the second by turning an option keeper into a 36-yard gain that caught the Sun Devils flat-footed.

It’s almost as if the ASU players didn’t believe Bennett had that kind of acceleration. Maybe they should have done their homework. He was a track star at Crespi Carmelite High in Encino, Calif., who ran on the relays and triple jumped nearly 47 feet. He has been clocked at 4.52 in the 40.

Bennett is just fine pulling the trigger on Oregon’s spread option. It’s a good thing, because he might be starting at 12:30 p.m. Saturday when the No. 9 Ducks (5-1, 3-0) play in an FSN game at Colorado (1-6, 0-3).

It’s unclear how seriously Thomas is hurt with what is thought to be a left knee injury.

Thomas was in full pads when he exited Oregon’s closed practice Tuesday morning. He didn’t appear to be wearing a brace or limping. However Jay Allen, a member of the Oregon radio broadcast team, tweeted he had been told that Bennett has taken all the snaps with the first-string offense in practice this week.

If Bennett gets the call Saturday afternoon in Boulder, Grasu said, the Oregon quarterback and the UO offense will be just fine.

“Prince got hurt six plays into the game,” Grasu said. “I honestly didn’t even know Bryan was the back-up, because he was the JV quarterback. He had the JV game the next day. So I didn’t think he was going to play. Then he came in, and he just took it over from there. He took us to the state final.”

Truth is, in that game, Bennett was scared to death.

“When he got told to come in, he was so nervous that he couldn’t say the play,” Grasu said. “But in college, when he got thrown in, he was excited, calling the plays with authority, running our offense, being a leader out there.”

Experience is a great teacher. Bennett never has forgotten that deer-in-the-headlights moment as a high school sophomore.

One moment, he was minding his own business on the sidelines. The next moment he was on the field, the crowd watching, the defense digging in and 10 teammates looking to him.

“That was a big learning experience for me,” Bennett said. “I go back to staying poised, and things like that. A lot of that I learned when I was 15 years old, playing against Birmingham. They were a good team at the time, and I got thrown in there.”

He didn’t feel ready.

“I remember not really expecting to play, not having a rib protector on, not having my ankles taped – anything like that,” he said. “All of a sudden, they called my name. That was a real surprise.”

The lesson learned was to always prepare as if you’re going to play. It’s why Bennett bears down in practice, in meetings, in video sessions, in the offseason. He made himself ready, so that when he was summoned last Saturday, he wasn’t nervous.

He was prepared.

“Being a back-up isn’t just being a back-up,” Bennett said. “There is a lot of responsibility that you still have, because you don’t know when your number could be called. You don’t know when you're going to have to step up for your team. It’s not just for yourself. It’s for the good of the team.”

The Ducks weren’t about to back off because Thomas was on the sidelines getting his left knee examined, and Bennett was running the show.

“I was 100 percent confident,” offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich said. “We had that conversation when he went into the game. The phrase we said was, ‘all systems go.’”

And why not? The sight off Bennett breaking free on the option keeper probably had defensive coordinators around the conference reaching for the antacid bottle. He can run with Thomas, and he has a better vertical leap.

After concentrating on football during his sophomore and junior seasons of high school, Bennett’s basketball coach talked him into coming out as a senior.

“In basketball, he was dunking over people 6-8,” Grasu said. “Just dunking over them, dunking on breakaways. He’s very athletic.”

That’s important. But, if you believe Bennett, not as important as his preparation. Which explains why he didn’t let the moment swallow him Saturday against Arizona State.

“You know, we play football every day,” Bennett said. “When it comes down to it, it’s just playing football. That’s the way you have to look at it. Obviously, there is a lot more on the line. There are people watching. There is a crowd. There is all this. It’s loud – 100 different things that could get in your way if you let it. But you can’t let it.